Git can be very difficult to understand if you are using it for the first time. I myself had faced many problems when using it for the first time. But, with regularly using Git and Github now it seems a whole lot easier for me to work with. This is a simple guide for anyone who wants to learn git as efficiently and as fast as possible. I have tried my best to make this guide very easy to follow. So, without wasting any more time let’s get started. Shall we??
Git is simply a tool where developers collobarate and work together while GitHub is a git repository hosting service. In simple terms, it is a place where all our code lives. We can create any number of repositories(projects) on github.
Now, there are 2 ways to use git.
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Command Line (Highly Recommended)
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Desktop Client (E.g, Github Desktop)
Before moving further let’s get deep dive on what git actually is. Believe me, it’s gonna be a lot of fun when you understand the actual purpose of using this tool.
Let’s assume that a web app is hosted somewhere in the world. The team that created this web app has 3 core members Alice, Bob and Jack. Each one of them has their own copy of source code in their local machines (Laptop/Desktop). Now, let’s say that Bob has made some minor changes to one of the files and a sudden thought pops on his mind.
Hmm, It’s not possible for me to go and inform my teammates everytime I made some changes to these files. So, is there any tool that can do this workload for me.
Well, yes there is. Hoorah!! You got it right. It’s Git → Version Control System. In simple terms, Git just keeps the track of our code. And Github is just a place where our code lives. So, now that we know what’s git and github let’s see how to use it.
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Repository simply means project folder where our different files are present. It’s just a naming convention that git uses.
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The project folder that lives on the github servers are called remote repository. It’s called remote because github hosts it somewhere in the world. We can access that repository by some unique url that github provides for us.
For e.g, this
- The project folder that lives on our local machines are called local repository. Pretty simple, right!! Ok, let’s move on.
- git --version
- git init
- git remote add origin ‘your_github_repository_url’
- git remote
- git remote -v
- git status
- git diff
- git add ‘filename’
- git add .
- git commit -m ‘Initial Commit’
- git push
- git config --global user.name ‘Your Name’
- git config --global user.email ‘Your Email’
- git config --list
Don’t worry. We will see what each command is in the following section. The fun part begins.. So, let’s get started :)
First of all, download git from this official link. Once the installation process has finished, open the Git Bash where we will write git commands. If you don’t know where to find Git Bash here it is..
Go to Desktop → Right Click → Select the option ‘Git Bash Here’. And that’s all, it will open a new terminal screen where we will write different git commands.
To verify that git is properly installed on your machine run the below command.
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Visit the official github website and signup (if you haven’t done already)
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Make a new repository (e.g, Demo) by filling out the details.
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Create a new folder (e.g, Demo) on your laptop and create a new file ‘demo.txt’ file inside that folder.
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Open Git Bash and cd into the folder that you created in the above step.
Suppose, you have given same name to your local folder & your github repository i.e, Demo.
Now, to use git commands we need to make sure that the folder we are using is a Git Repository. For that purpose use the below command. It will initialize your local folder into a git repository.
Disclaimer: You need to initialize your local folder as a git repository otherwise the git commands will not work.
You may have notice one thing over here i.e, we have an empty demo.txt file in our local repository. But, in the remote repository that you have created there is no such file. Hm, Strange right?? Well the answer is simple. It’s because git doesn’t know where the remote repository is. For now git will just track the local files because it doesn’t have any connection with remote repository. So, how to add the remote repository?? It’s just a matter of 1 command.
It simply adds your remote repository and gives the name as origin.
Now, to verify that your remote repository has been added properly or not just run the below command.
It will give the name of the remote repository. For e.g, in our case it would be origin.
It will give the name as well as the url of the remote repository. For e.g, in our case it would be origin ‘your_github_repository_url’
That’s all. We have successfully added our remote repository. Let’s move on to the next step.
Now, let’s say you have modified the demo.txt file that you created earlier and added some text (For e.g, Hello there!!!). Git is smart enough to track the changes that you have made to the file. But, there’s some gotcha over here. Let’s find out.
It will show you the files in your Working Tree and the files in your Staging Area. In simple terms, it will show you exactly which files/folders have been modified. In our case it will show that demo.txt file has been modified.
It will add your file to the staging area. For e.g, git add demo.txt
If we add a ‘.’ instead of filename then it will add all your files to the staging area. For e.g, git add .
Now, you may wonder that what’s working tree & staging area?? So, let’s find out.
Basically, there are two important concepts over here.
(Source of below definitions: https://medium.com/@lucasmaurer/git-gud-the-working-tree-staging-area-and-local-repo-a1f0f4822018)
The Working tree is the area where you are currently working. It is where your files live. This area is also known as the untracked area of git. If you make changes to files in your working tree git will recognize that they are modified, but until you tell git that Hey pay attention to these files!! it won’t save anything that goes on in them.
The Staging Area is when git starts tracking and saving changes that occur in files. You tell git that I want to track these specific files, then git says okay and moves them from your Working Tree to the Staging Area and says Cool, I know about this file in it’s entirety.
Okay, so now that you know about working tree & staging area let’s move on to the next command.
It will show the difference between a file in the staging area and file that's present in the working tree (Untracked file).
Let’s understand git diff with a small example. Assume that your 'demo.txt' file is empty. Now, run git add demo.txt command to add your file to the staging area. If our file gets added to the staging area then git will track all the changes that we have made. Add some text in your 'demo.txt' file and before adding your file to the staging area just run the command git diff.
It will save your changes to your local repository. It's generally good practice to include commit message so that you'll know what changes you have made. The -m flag is used to write down your commit message.
Now, here’s one more gotcha. If you run the git commit command without saving your config variables, then git will throw out an error because git doesn’t know that who's trying to make a commit. For that reason, we will need to add the config variables i.e, name & email. So, how to add it?? It's very simple. Just run the below commands and that's it.
How to verify that your config variables are added to the config file??
It will list all the config variables. Search for your name & email in that list.
Now, up until now all the changes that we have made lives in our local repository, right?? Remember we have also created a repository on github as well. In our local repository we do have a file named demo.txt but there’s no such file in our remote repository. So, how to push the changes that we have made in our local repository to the remote repository. Let’s find out.
(NOTE: When you’ll run this command for the very first time, it will open a prompt asking for your github login credentials so just provide it)
It will just push all the changes from (local → remote) repository. Remember, how we added our remote repository through git remote add origin ‘your_github_repo_url’ command. So, the push command simply says that whatever we have in our local repository just push them in the remote repository. And in our case the remote is origin.
After running the git push origin master command just visit your remote github repository. You will notice that whatever changes you have made in your local repository also shows up in the remote repository. That's the beauty of using Git & Github
You may also think that what master is?? Don’t worry, we will cover all those advanced topics in the Part-2 of this series where we will cover topics such as
- git clone ‘your_github_repository_url’
- git pull origin master
- git branch
- git branch -b ‘branch-name’
- git branch -d ‘branch-name’
- git checkout ‘branch-name’
- What is fork??
- What is a PR??
- How to solve merge conflicts??
So, that’s all from my side friends!! I hope that you like it and have learnt something from this article. If you have any doubts then feel free to ask me in the Zero To Mastery Discord Community. I would love to help you out. Alright until next time, bye :)